Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Throwing reason to the winds (and wind is something mighty
familiar to us these days), Great Small Works is embarking on its Tenth International
Toy Theater Festival and Temporary Toy Theater Museum, which will take place June
14th through 23rd 2013, at St. Ann's Warehouse in its new temporary
space at 29 Jay Street in Brooklyn’s DUMBO neighborhood. The warehouse
will offer new opportunities and challenges for exploring design and
programming ideas, and we are grateful to St. Ann’s for the return invitation.

As in previous years, we strive to juxtapose performances
which embrace paper theater’s classical, historic style with contemporary experimentations
with the form.We want to include
young artists searching for their creative voices as well as seasoned
puppeteers.We seek diversity of
all kinds—stylistic, cultural, technical, and thematic.

We are writing now to request
your proposals. There are a limited number of performance slots
available, but we want to involve as many people as possible; our goal, as
always, is to create a diverse, inclusive and colossal event! In the
festival context, 20-minute pieces are ideal. Each show will be presented
twice, and will be part of a program with other shows. Although
the format is small, we encourage big ideas!

For
this festival, we will not be able to construct multiple theaters for
simultaneous performances, but will have a main stage with multiple shows in
each program.This means that we
will be especially inclined to accept pieces which are relatively easy to take
on and off the stage.We are also
hoping to build a couple of small venues, for no more than 25 people, where
individual shows can be presented in a truly intimate way.And, we hope that very small and very
short pieces can be presented in and around the exhibit as we’ve done in the
past, so do let us know if you have a 5-minute-or-less mini-show you’d like to
perform.

Although fundraising efforts are ongoing, as of now we have
no money for artist fees.We will certainly
let you know if and when the financial picture improves.As a minimum, we commit to pay travel
expenses and provide housing for those of you who are not in New York City.

Have you done Toy Theater before?Have you been doing Toy Theater for the past 50 years?Are you an actor, cartoonist, visual
artist, animator, photographer, musician?Have you always wanted to play with paper?Have you just arrived in New York City and seek ways to
express your deepest passions?Do
you live in Albuquerque and need a change of scenery?

Please send us the following information:

What
is your show?

What
does it look like? (images/video appreciated, on DVD/CDs or online links)

Have
you performed it before?Where and
when?

How long is it? How many
performers are involved?

Is it suitable for family
audiences?

Maximum audience possible?

Any
special technical requirements?

Date
limitations?Economic limitations?

Please send information by February 15th to either

:

Snail mail:Great
Small Works

c/o
Trudi Cohen

100
Jackson Street

Cambridge,
MA 02140

E-mail:toytheater@gmail.com

Include a SASE if you send any materials you’d like
returned.If you're not sure how
to respond, we’re glad to answer questions, offer encouragement and enthusiasm
and resource materials, or invite you for tea. Please feel free to
distribute this as widely as you like.We look forward to hearing from you!

from Trudi Cohen, Lake Simons, Erin Orr (programming committee) for Great Small
Works

TOY THEATER:THE GRANDEST OF TALES WITH THE SIMPLEST OF MEANS

Toy Theater (also called Paper Theater) was the rage in parlors across Europe and the Americas in the 19th century, a popular means of staging dramatic spectacles at home.But just as revolutions in print technology had brought Toy Theater into 19th-century homes, 20th-century advances in electronic media and mass culture led to the virtual extinction of this inexpensive family entertainment.The small box used to stage sumptuous dances, battles and stories in the parlor was replaced by an all-too-familiar box in the modern living room.Fantastic in scope, easily affordable and open to any imaginable content, Toy Theater begs to be rescued from obscurity and re-invented in a wide variety of contemporary styles.Join Great Small Works in this exciting revival!

GREAT SMALL WORKS

Is an award-winning collective of theater artists who draw on folk, avant-garde and popular theater traditions to address contemporary issues. Its members are: John Bell, Trudi Cohen, Stephen Kaplin, Jenny Romaine, Roberto Rossi and Mark Sussman. The company has produced nine Toy Theater festivals in NYC since 1993.

Look us up at www.greatsmallworks.org

EXTRA—we will be having a Museum opening celebration on
Sunday, June 15th, which will include, for the second time ever, the
Greatest Smallest Parade with miniature floats and a giant brass band.We encourage you and everyone you know
to make little sculptures that can be pushed or pulled down the sidewalks of
DUMBO!You can contact us about
the parade at toytheater@gmail.com.

Monday, January 7, 2013

Please join the Aftselokhes Spectacle Committee and JFREJ on Sunday Jan 13th for a workshop/scheming/political education to begin creating this year's Purim Extravaganza!

(what is a farbrengen? a joyous gathering of allies and comrades and rabble rousers)

... This is the event that kicks the annual Aftselokhis Purim Party into action. What will we do?

We make the show. We educate each other about the political content that ties it all together. We eat food. We sing songs. We tell stories.

Expect The Whole Megilah (yes).

This farbrengen is open to all! Please invite, forward, and tell your friends! This year's Purim will center on the issue of policing in NYC, from stop & frisk to Islamophobic surveillance. It is guaranteed to feature amazing live music, extravagant theater, and razor-sharp political education.

In the Valley of the Uncanny: Humans and Humanoids

Saturday, January 12 at 7:30pm. Suggested donation $9

We are located at 322 Union Avenue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Artist Laurie O'Brien, filmmaker Allison de Fren, neuroscientist Asif Ghazanfar & artist John Bell will be in attendance for presentations and a discussion following moderated by Cabinet editor D. Graham Burnett. This event was organized by Toby Lee.

In the 1970s, Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori first used the term “The Uncanny Valley” to describe the profoundly unsettling sense of the non-human in these human-like beings. Building on Freud’s definition of the uncanny as the feeling of strangeness in something familiar, Mori’s theories have since become influential in fields as diverse as puppetry, psychology, animation and video games.

Our guests take us on a tour of the Uncanny Valley, exploring the horrors as well as the pleasures of the not-quite-human. John Bell traces a history of the uncanny in puppetry; Allison de Fren shares her short documentary on robot fetishists; Asif Ghazanfar discusses his research on the Uncanny Valley effect among monkeys; and Laurie O’Brien introduces us to Toby the Puppet. Together, they examine and indulge in the enduring human fascination with the humanoid.